Many years ago i worked on the front desk of a hotel in Sydney. Through this job you meet lots of folks. YOu cant help having a chat with the more interesting ones. I remember very 2 folks very clearly. ONe a man of about 60 coming through letting me know he was heading off to the Torres Strait. Thinking he was off for a safari fishing expedition i kept talking to him. He let me know it was not fish they were after but gold. Gold i said. Pirate gold is what he said next. I laughed to my self and pressed him for more info as one does. He said nothing more other than the Spanish and Portuguese and Dutch traded with northern australians both aboriginal and islander for many years before the first white settlement of OZ.
Another man i met was a character. He stayed at the hotel and when checking him in i saw he lived on Thursday Island in the strait. We got chatting about fishing as thats all there is to do in the straits. We soon found out we had a friend in common. A man who took me fishing a few times up that way. HE asked me if i knew about the wreck of the Quetta. One of Australias worst shipping disasters. I said i had heard of it but really knew nothing. He came down from his room with a stack of photos from his diving there. My memory goes fuzzy there but he may have been on the trip that discovered and found the wreck. We got talking about other wrecks and the topic of spanish treasure came up again. He told me the story of Jardine, one of the first white explorers and the load of silver found in a reef plus the legend of Murray (mer) Island treasure. Well he checked out of the hotel and i never gave it another thought.
You see the strait was first recorded by Luís Vaz de Torres, a Spanish pilot who was second-in-command on the Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós who sailed from Peru to the South Pacific in 1605. The strait itself is a shallow , narrow pice of water where the Arafura and the Coral sea meet. The area is windswept and there is a 5 meter difference between the 2 seas and with the constant wind you get whats known as a boxing tide. To say its treacherous is an understatement. Hundreds of islands , sandbanks and coral reefs dot the strait each effecting currents as the tide race around them. The seas is infested with sharks and saltwater crocodiles. It requires a pilot to this day for most vessels taking a short cut from Asia. Hundreds of australian ships met their ends here in the 19th century. Many people survived these shipwrecks and made it to land only to find that the Islanders practiced cannibalism and were butchered for dinner. The strait may have been used by europeans as a route from Manilla to the Spice Islands in the Banda sea a 1000 miles away from northern Australia.
Now a few hundred miles to the west of the strait is a group of islands jutting out directly north of an area called Arnehm Land. An extremely remote part of the Northern Territory. Aboriginal rock art in these areas depicts european ships. It is thought that the aboriginals would trade trochus shell with both european and indonesian traders on their Phinisi schooners. These islands called the Wessells could be a severe hazard to navigation. The islands run for around 100 miles jutting out directly north into the sea. they are low lying and uninhabited. They would be the ultimate wrecking ground for ships who get off course or cannot navigate via the stars due to cloudy skys or vessels getting caught in an early or late season cyclone that come through theses areas. Again these islands have some impressive currents.
I have never given it another thought.
Then this article popped up a few days ago.
Ancient African Coins Found In Australia Could Rewrite History; Team Seeks 1,000-Year-Old Evidence
In 1770, British sea captain Lieutenant James Cook landed on the east coast of Australia, claiming the territory for England. But a new expedition led by an Australian anthropologist is seeking evidence of ancient explorations that may have taken place far before Cook and his fellow European explorers ever arrived on the continent.
The expedition, led by Ian McIntosh, a professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), will follow a nearly 70-year-old treasure map to an area where a cache of mysterious, 1,000-year-old coins were discovered in the 1940s, according to a IUPUI release.
The researchers hope to discover how the coins ended up in the sand -- whether they washed ashore from a shipwreck and whether they can provide more details about ancient trading routes.
The coins were originally found during World War II by Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg, who was stationed in a remote area known as the Wessel Islands, off the Australian north coast. While fishing one day in 1944, Isenberg found a few old coins and took them home as keepsakes. It wasn't until 1979 that Isenberg sent the coins to be authenticated and learned they were actually 1,000 years old.
According to IUPUI, some of the coins are from the Dutch East India Company, while five older coins came from Kilwa Sultanate in Tanzania. Once an opulent trading hub, Kilwa is now in ruins, classified a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“This trade route was already very active, a very long period of time ago, and this may [be] evidence of that early exploration by peoples from East Africa, or from the Middle East,” McIntosh told Indiana Public Media.
Australia has a "fixation" on Cook and the Dutch explorers who reached Australia in the 1600s, but the coins hint at something bigger, McIntosh said.
"There is strong evidence that Australia was part of a broad trading network," that at one point included southern Africa, India, China and the Spice Islands, McIntosh told The Huffington Post. "To what extent we have no idea, but we have to find out."
The Wessel Islands, located about 130 kilometers off Australia's northern coast, serve as a "big catching arm" for any ships blown off course, McIntosh told HuffPost.
"Everything about [the islands] speaks of ancient context," he said.
McIntosh will be attempting to retrace Isenberg's steps, using a map the old soldier drew by hand. Isenberg marked the coins' site with an "X."
"It's like a detective story. We're trying to piece together the past," he said.
McIntosh will be joined by a team of Australian and American historians, archaeologists, geomorphologists and Aboriginal rangers. With financial backing from the Australian Geographic Society, the team will map and survey the area where the coins were discovered, test the soil and conduct various coastal analysis, according to the IUPUI news release.
and another follow up
Morry Isenberg as a young man.
An Australian anthropologist based in the US says he is excited to be finally able to explore the Northern Territory site where five medieval-era African coins were found in 1944.
Discovery may rewrite Australian history
He said the trip could change our ideas of who were the first seafarers from distant lands to set foot on Australian soil and trade with Aborigines.
Professor Ian McIntosh, of Indiana University, was astonished to learn 25 years ago the coins had been found in 1944 by RAAF radar operator Morry Isenberg at Marchinbar Island, off Arnhem Land.
But he couldn't get funding at the time to mount an archaeological expedition to pursue his theories of Australia's link to 16th century international trade routes.
In July, private company Australian Geographic will fund Professor McIntosh to lead a team of archaeologists, historians, coin experts and indigenous rangers to explore what other relics might lie on the island.
Dutchman Willem Janszoon has long been thought the first European to walk on Australian soil – at Cape York in 1606.
But Professor McIntosh told Fairfax Media by phone from Indianapolis that before then, Portuguese sailors had been prolific traders in waters north of Australia.
The African coins found by Mr Isenberg originated at the Kilwa Sultinate, a kingdom in an island off current day Tanzania.
Kilwa was sacked in 1505 by Portuguese raiders who set up a fort, and in the early 1500s, in turn, the Portuguese landed at many Asian sites north of Australia, from Malacca to East Timor to Ambon.
Professor McIntosh says Australia could have been part of an "ancient Indian Ocean trading route" linking it to southern Africa, the Middle East, India, China and the Spice Islands.
"Was Australia part of that trading route? We don't know, but the Kilwa coins give us a hint that we weren't as isolated as we perhaps thought we were."
Professor McIntosh's PhD was on connections between Indonesians and Aboriginal Australians that long pre-dated European exploration.
Professor McIntosh heard about the Kilwa coins during his research, and was intrigued.
Sydney coin expert William Mira read an article about Professor McIntosh's interest in them in The Bulletin magazine and corresponded with him.
Dr Mira had assessed Mr Isenberg's coins when they were donated to Sydney's Mint Museum, now the Powerhouse Museum, in 1985.
Dr Mira sent Professor McIntosh a copy of a World War II map of Marchinbar Island on which Mr Isenberg had drawn an X, indicating to Dr Mira the beach where the Kilwa coins were found.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Professor McIntosh worked for seven years as a linguist with the Aboriginal community at Elcho Island, which is part of the Wessel islands that include Marchinbar.
Professor McIntosh said he couldn't find funding to explore Marchinbar at the time.
By contrast, today Australian Geographic is funding an expedition and thanks to the internet, a press release earlier this week led to global coverage.
He said today, old Kilwa coins can be bought cheaply in markets in Kenya, so didn't have face value. "But in historical terms, they're valuable. They could tell us a lot about early Australian history."
If digs were warranted, it would in a subsequent expedition. "This is a surveillance trip [searching for] evidence for something we can move forward with in the second stage. It could be something as simple as a broken piece of basalt which is not indigenous to Arnhem land but could be ballast for a ship."
He said it was a "very serious scientific expedition, and we're excited but we want to do it right".
Unfortunately or fortunately (which ever way you see it) in Australia you cant mess with historical shipwrecks and all finds belong to the crown (Oz govt not english). No finders fees or percentages etc. Would be great to think that there is a ship (and a cave which is mentioned in other news articles) loaded with everything under the sun just waiting to be discovered.
Another man i met was a character. He stayed at the hotel and when checking him in i saw he lived on Thursday Island in the strait. We got chatting about fishing as thats all there is to do in the straits. We soon found out we had a friend in common. A man who took me fishing a few times up that way. HE asked me if i knew about the wreck of the Quetta. One of Australias worst shipping disasters. I said i had heard of it but really knew nothing. He came down from his room with a stack of photos from his diving there. My memory goes fuzzy there but he may have been on the trip that discovered and found the wreck. We got talking about other wrecks and the topic of spanish treasure came up again. He told me the story of Jardine, one of the first white explorers and the load of silver found in a reef plus the legend of Murray (mer) Island treasure. Well he checked out of the hotel and i never gave it another thought.
You see the strait was first recorded by Luís Vaz de Torres, a Spanish pilot who was second-in-command on the Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós who sailed from Peru to the South Pacific in 1605. The strait itself is a shallow , narrow pice of water where the Arafura and the Coral sea meet. The area is windswept and there is a 5 meter difference between the 2 seas and with the constant wind you get whats known as a boxing tide. To say its treacherous is an understatement. Hundreds of islands , sandbanks and coral reefs dot the strait each effecting currents as the tide race around them. The seas is infested with sharks and saltwater crocodiles. It requires a pilot to this day for most vessels taking a short cut from Asia. Hundreds of australian ships met their ends here in the 19th century. Many people survived these shipwrecks and made it to land only to find that the Islanders practiced cannibalism and were butchered for dinner. The strait may have been used by europeans as a route from Manilla to the Spice Islands in the Banda sea a 1000 miles away from northern Australia.
Now a few hundred miles to the west of the strait is a group of islands jutting out directly north of an area called Arnehm Land. An extremely remote part of the Northern Territory. Aboriginal rock art in these areas depicts european ships. It is thought that the aboriginals would trade trochus shell with both european and indonesian traders on their Phinisi schooners. These islands called the Wessells could be a severe hazard to navigation. The islands run for around 100 miles jutting out directly north into the sea. they are low lying and uninhabited. They would be the ultimate wrecking ground for ships who get off course or cannot navigate via the stars due to cloudy skys or vessels getting caught in an early or late season cyclone that come through theses areas. Again these islands have some impressive currents.
I have never given it another thought.
Then this article popped up a few days ago.
Ancient African Coins Found In Australia Could Rewrite History; Team Seeks 1,000-Year-Old Evidence
In 1770, British sea captain Lieutenant James Cook landed on the east coast of Australia, claiming the territory for England. But a new expedition led by an Australian anthropologist is seeking evidence of ancient explorations that may have taken place far before Cook and his fellow European explorers ever arrived on the continent.
The expedition, led by Ian McIntosh, a professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), will follow a nearly 70-year-old treasure map to an area where a cache of mysterious, 1,000-year-old coins were discovered in the 1940s, according to a IUPUI release.
The researchers hope to discover how the coins ended up in the sand -- whether they washed ashore from a shipwreck and whether they can provide more details about ancient trading routes.
The coins were originally found during World War II by Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg, who was stationed in a remote area known as the Wessel Islands, off the Australian north coast. While fishing one day in 1944, Isenberg found a few old coins and took them home as keepsakes. It wasn't until 1979 that Isenberg sent the coins to be authenticated and learned they were actually 1,000 years old.
According to IUPUI, some of the coins are from the Dutch East India Company, while five older coins came from Kilwa Sultanate in Tanzania. Once an opulent trading hub, Kilwa is now in ruins, classified a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“This trade route was already very active, a very long period of time ago, and this may [be] evidence of that early exploration by peoples from East Africa, or from the Middle East,” McIntosh told Indiana Public Media.
Australia has a "fixation" on Cook and the Dutch explorers who reached Australia in the 1600s, but the coins hint at something bigger, McIntosh said.
"There is strong evidence that Australia was part of a broad trading network," that at one point included southern Africa, India, China and the Spice Islands, McIntosh told The Huffington Post. "To what extent we have no idea, but we have to find out."
The Wessel Islands, located about 130 kilometers off Australia's northern coast, serve as a "big catching arm" for any ships blown off course, McIntosh told HuffPost.
"Everything about [the islands] speaks of ancient context," he said.
McIntosh will be attempting to retrace Isenberg's steps, using a map the old soldier drew by hand. Isenberg marked the coins' site with an "X."
"It's like a detective story. We're trying to piece together the past," he said.
McIntosh will be joined by a team of Australian and American historians, archaeologists, geomorphologists and Aboriginal rangers. With financial backing from the Australian Geographic Society, the team will map and survey the area where the coins were discovered, test the soil and conduct various coastal analysis, according to the IUPUI news release.
and another follow up
Morry Isenberg as a young man.
An Australian anthropologist based in the US says he is excited to be finally able to explore the Northern Territory site where five medieval-era African coins were found in 1944.
Discovery may rewrite Australian history
He said the trip could change our ideas of who were the first seafarers from distant lands to set foot on Australian soil and trade with Aborigines.
Professor Ian McIntosh, of Indiana University, was astonished to learn 25 years ago the coins had been found in 1944 by RAAF radar operator Morry Isenberg at Marchinbar Island, off Arnhem Land.
But he couldn't get funding at the time to mount an archaeological expedition to pursue his theories of Australia's link to 16th century international trade routes.
In July, private company Australian Geographic will fund Professor McIntosh to lead a team of archaeologists, historians, coin experts and indigenous rangers to explore what other relics might lie on the island.
Dutchman Willem Janszoon has long been thought the first European to walk on Australian soil – at Cape York in 1606.
But Professor McIntosh told Fairfax Media by phone from Indianapolis that before then, Portuguese sailors had been prolific traders in waters north of Australia.
The African coins found by Mr Isenberg originated at the Kilwa Sultinate, a kingdom in an island off current day Tanzania.
Kilwa was sacked in 1505 by Portuguese raiders who set up a fort, and in the early 1500s, in turn, the Portuguese landed at many Asian sites north of Australia, from Malacca to East Timor to Ambon.
Professor McIntosh says Australia could have been part of an "ancient Indian Ocean trading route" linking it to southern Africa, the Middle East, India, China and the Spice Islands.
"Was Australia part of that trading route? We don't know, but the Kilwa coins give us a hint that we weren't as isolated as we perhaps thought we were."
Professor McIntosh's PhD was on connections between Indonesians and Aboriginal Australians that long pre-dated European exploration.
Professor McIntosh heard about the Kilwa coins during his research, and was intrigued.
Sydney coin expert William Mira read an article about Professor McIntosh's interest in them in The Bulletin magazine and corresponded with him.
Dr Mira had assessed Mr Isenberg's coins when they were donated to Sydney's Mint Museum, now the Powerhouse Museum, in 1985.
Dr Mira sent Professor McIntosh a copy of a World War II map of Marchinbar Island on which Mr Isenberg had drawn an X, indicating to Dr Mira the beach where the Kilwa coins were found.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Professor McIntosh worked for seven years as a linguist with the Aboriginal community at Elcho Island, which is part of the Wessel islands that include Marchinbar.
Professor McIntosh said he couldn't find funding to explore Marchinbar at the time.
By contrast, today Australian Geographic is funding an expedition and thanks to the internet, a press release earlier this week led to global coverage.
He said today, old Kilwa coins can be bought cheaply in markets in Kenya, so didn't have face value. "But in historical terms, they're valuable. They could tell us a lot about early Australian history."
If digs were warranted, it would in a subsequent expedition. "This is a surveillance trip [searching for] evidence for something we can move forward with in the second stage. It could be something as simple as a broken piece of basalt which is not indigenous to Arnhem land but could be ballast for a ship."
He said it was a "very serious scientific expedition, and we're excited but we want to do it right".
Unfortunately or fortunately (which ever way you see it) in Australia you cant mess with historical shipwrecks and all finds belong to the crown (Oz govt not english). No finders fees or percentages etc. Would be great to think that there is a ship (and a cave which is mentioned in other news articles) loaded with everything under the sun just waiting to be discovered.
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